1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contacting device for the contacting of an integrated circuit, in particular of a chip or a wafer, with a tester device, a corresponding testing method and a corresponding production method.
Although it can be applied in principle to any integrated circuits or components, the present invention and the problem on which it is based are explained with reference to chips with integrated circuits using silicon technology.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The increasing production density of today's electronic circuits or electronic circuit units, also referred to as chips, is leading to increased requirements for testing. Before delivery, the electronic circuit units must be subjected to various tests. In a conventional way, the electronic circuit units accommodated in packages are inserted into special test sockets and thereby contacted at the package contacts. For the contacting of unpackaged chips, needle cards, which usually have resilient contact pins, are used.
During the contacting, the circuit units to be tested are subjected to various test conditions. For example, series of tests are conducted at an elevated temperature over a prolonged period of time, for example 120° C. for a time period of 24 hours. These series of tests are also referred to as “burn-in”. Long test times can rapidly lead here to high costs of testing and to commercial disadvantages.
For the efficient contacting of the circuit units to be tested, it has been proposed to provide sockets into which the circuit units to be tested are introduced.
A major disadvantage of known methods for the contacting of electronic circuit units is that these circuit units have to be provided with a package and corresponding terminal contacts outside the package.
Conventional contacting devices cannot be used for circuit units to be tested without a package, i.e. so-called “bare chips”. There is an increasing demand for provision of so-called multi-chip modules, i.e. various chips or circuit units are accommodated in a single module.
It is quite possible here for the individual circuit units to be supplied by different manufacturers. One important aspect in the delivery of circuit units without a package is that the circuit units must be inspected for defects just as carefully as the packaged circuit units.
Most widespread are chips with contact areas of aluminum. An electrical measurement of such unpackaged chips is currently carried out with needle adaptors. The needles perforate the thin oxide skin of the aluminum and lead to a good, low-impedance contact. Corresponding measuring devices are complex, expensive and unsuitable for a multi-hour burn-in. Published German patent application 103 24 450 A1 discloses an example of a known contacting device.